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lOO ALPINE NOTES '

climb any more ; Heinrich at 54 is still going strong. this summer he did his 105th Lenzspitze-Nadelhorn traverse. Everybody in Zermatt and Saas is looking forward to the summer of 1945, hoping for a return of .the British Herren, who were so much appreciated by the Valais guides. I myself do hope that you will come too, even if you do not climb any more and restrict yourself to botanical walks from Riffelalp. F . A. M. NOELTING.

ALPINE NOTES · Year of • THE ALPINE CLUB OBITUARY : Election.

Wheeler, A. 0., Hon. Member • • • 1908 Des borough, The Rt. Hon. Lord, I{. G.,

G.C.V.O. • • • • • • 1876 Rendall, The Rev. Canon G. H . • • • 1890

Stallard, G. • • • • • • 1893 Brigg, J. J .. • • • • • • 1894 Tucker, H. Scott • • • • • 1910

Seymour, Dr. H. F. • • • • • 1920

Elmslie, The Rev. W. T. • • • • 1926

• Hackett, A. • • • • • • 1928 Oliver, Lt.-Col. P . R. (on active service) • 1933 de Grunne, M. le Comte Xavier de Hemricourt 1933 Wedderburn, Major E. A. M. (on active service) 1934 Roelfsema, Dr. E. J. • • • • • 1937 Dutton-Walker, Lt. F. B. (on active service) • 1939 HoNOURS. We offer our hearty congratulations to Dr. P. C. Visser on his appointment as Netherlands Minister in Capetown ; and also to Mr. J. M . ·wordie on receiving the award of the Scottish Geo­ graphical Medal, the highest award given by the Royal Scottish Geo­ graphical Society. The last two awards of this Medal were in 1927 and 1933. GREETINGS. The Swiss Foundation for Alpine Exploration tele­ graphed: 'Merry Christmas and best wishes for 1945.' Our member Mr. Claude Macdonald cabled from Melbourne : 'All good wishes President all old friends.' \"'le acknowledge these greetings with gratitude. DEATHS. We regret to record the deaths of our Honorary Member Mr. A. 0. Wheeler, who has been an Honorary Member since 1908, and of Lord Desborough, who was elected to this Club in 1876. We hope to publish In Memoriam notices in our next issue. We have also learnt recent~y to our sorrow that our Dutch member, Dr. E. J. Roelfsema, one of the best Dutch guideless climbers, died at Mepp.el, Holland, in October 1943• •

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. IN MEMORIAM

• GERALD HENRY RENDALL •

We acknowledge with gratitude the courtesy of the Editor, The Times, for p ern1ission to reprint the following notice. EDITOR. GERALD HENRY RENDALL was born in I8SI and educated at Harrow~ where he was in his father's house, now called Rendall's, for six years) and was head of the school in I86g- 7o. Montague Butler, who had become Head Master in I 86o at the age of 27, was in his prime. Besides his classical distinction, Rendall won the chief school prizes for mathe­ matics, history, and Shakespeare. It is interesting to _note that his. . literary work in his later years was done in the field of Shakespearean <;riticism : he wrote in his eightieth year a vigorous plea for Edward de Vere ~s the author of the Sonnets. For twQ years he was a member of Harrow shooting VIII which won the Ashburton Shield, and twice in su<;cession· he won the school walking race. It is not surprising that he was for more than 40 years an active member of the Alpirie Club, 1 and at 8o years of age could still enjoy the' Ladders round 'at Grindel-· wald~ In I87o he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became in due course Scholar and Fellow : he was bracketed fourth in the Classical Tripos of I874 and was elected Bell Scholar with J. G. Butcher (later Lord Danesfort). He won the Hulsean priz~ essay on ' The Emperor Julian,' was Lightfoot Scholar in history, and from I878 to I88o Birkbeck Lecturer on ecclesiastic~! history. For five years •

after his Fellowship he remained at Trinity as lecturer and assistant •• tutor, filling th.ese posts with great distinction. . The rest of his life (ell into three periods : {or I 7 years he was Principal of University College, Liverpool (I 88o-97) ; for I 3 years he was Head Master of Charterhouse {I897- I9II); for nearly 33 years {I9II-45) he lived in industrious and happy retirement at Dedham. His work at Liverpool was important and eminently successful. These were early times in th:e days of provincial university colleges : it says much for Rend all's energy and tact that in three years from its founda­ tion Liverpool was able to claim admission to the federated \ Tictoria University side by side with Owens College, · Manchester. Rendall himself occupied the Gladstone Chair of Greek, and from I894 to I897 served as Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University . •

• 1 • Mumm's Register records: 1887. N ew ascents of the Allalinhorn from the Hohlaub Glacier by E. arete and of the Rossbodenhorn by S. W. arete, both with. H. W. Topham ; 1st recorded as c~nt of the Mittelruck with W. M. Conway and H. G. Broke. A.J. 13. 41 5. 1895· 1st ascent of the Klein Oberalpler.

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• • • IN MEMORIAM . ·It was a sharp transition and somewhat of an adventure when at Christma~, 1897, he. undertook the headmastership of Charterhouse in succession to Dr. Haig Brown. The new Head Master brought many ··.qualities to his new work high character, spiritual earnestness (as his published volume Charterhouse Sermons attests), great industry, wide scholarship, teaching experience (though in a different field), the gift of administration, charm of manner, and a strong belief in athletics. There can be no doubt that Gerald Rendall made a deep and per­ manent impression upon many thoughtful boys. He also had ~trong friends on the staff, among them that prince of teachers, T. E. Page, who shared the sixth form with him. On the Head Masters' Com­ mittee he naturally made his mark: he also became in 1907 president of the _Incorporated Association of Head Masters. Mter his retire­ ment in 191 I, at the age of 6o, his life was spent in quiet and devoted service to every good cause at Dedham. He w~s Examining Chaplain to the. Bishop of Chelmsford and Honorary Canon. He was also '! persistent student, and produced several fresh and interesting b.ooks . . In 1927 he brought out a vigorous plea for the e~rly date of St. James's • . ~pistle. He married in 1887 Ellen, daughter of John Rendall, barrister.; she died in 1938, :.

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JOH.N JEREMY BRIGG • • 1862-1945

THE survivor of twin brothers remarkable for their long careers of public service in Yorkshire died on February I, 1945, seven years after W. A. Brigg's death. Living for many years at Kildwick Hall near Keighley, engaged in countless activities of service to their nativ~ place, the br;.others set a notable example. It has been 'jestingly remarked that they had·divided the world,. W. A. taking Keighley, ·and • J. J. the West Riding. . · Educated at Giggleswick and Trinity College, Cambridge, they took M.A. and LL.M. degrees. John Brigg began public work as a member of the Keighley School Board in 1893, serveq fourteen years as County Councillor, and was elected Alderman in 1921. He fought at. least one Parliamentary election. ! · For many years he was chairman of the West Riding .Elementary ~ducation Committee and did great work on other important com­ mittees and on other educational bodies. Outstanding among many benefactions was the preservation 3:nd magnificent gift with his brother to the National Trust of East Riddles-­ den Hall. . A great lover of the open air, J. J.'s great recreation up· to the first · world war was mountaineering; every summer from 1891 to 1914 in the· Alps or- Norway, mostly with his brother, Eric Greenwood and ~lfred Holrnes. l-Ie came into rock climbing in the early.,days, and

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IN MEMORIAM was in the first groups to tackle the gritstone outcrops near home as \vell as Lakeland crags. In 1891- 94 his party climbed the Dom, Weisshorn, Schreckhorn, Matterhorn, Eiger and other peaks. Later they were particularly fond of long journeys and high passes, on which W. A. Brigg wrote four articles in this JOURNAL, and John a final one, ' Through the Maritime Alps '(A.J. zg. 300 sqq.). . The mention of his name will long recall pleasant memories and kindly acts. • E. E. ROBERTS .

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EDGAR FOA 1853-1944

THERE died on Christmas Eve, 1944, one of the older veterans of the Alpine Club. Edgar Foa was born in 1853. He was educated at U niv.ersity College School, took his B .A. at London University in 1871 and went up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was a Senior Optime in 1877 and was admitted a barrister of the Inner Temple in 188o. About this time he had a great friend, one Edmund Strode, and they brought out together a book on Landlord and Tenant. Foa afterwards kept this work up to date and it is still regarded as a reliable text book on the subject.

But it is his Alpine .career with which we are here concerned. He • was elected a member of the Club in 1897. At the end of the last century it was much more difficult to obtain admission to the Club than it is today. The membership at that time was limited to 500, and it was expected that a candidate should have spent at least fout seasons in the Alps and have climbed 20 first class peaks, to include snow, ice and rock ascents I-Iis qualification period was carried out during the years 189I to I894 and I896, and in I895 he was climbing in Norway. He became a member of the Swiss Alpine Club in I895 and was one of the original members of the Climbers' Club. In I~97 he was climbing with R. I. Simey and Mumm's R egister gives a for- . midable list of climbs in I 898 and I 899, always with Ulrich Almer as guide. In 1902 with W. H. Gover he made a prolonged tour·in the Silvrettas in connection with the revision of the Rhaetian section of Ball's Alpine Guide. Foa's expeditions in the Silvrettas are too numerous to mention, but he probably continued with this work until the publication of the volume dealing with Part II of the Central Alps in I91o. One of the results of this exploration was the paper which he read before the Club entitled ' A Tour in the Silvrettas ' (A .J. 22. 171 sqq.). I first met Foa in August I9IO at San Martino di Castrozza; he was then climbing with E. B. Harris, each with his own guide. I was then busily engaged adding to my ' 20. first class peaks,' with the intention of putting up for the Club at the end of the season. Foa and Harris both promised to back my application form. Mter my •

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IN MEMORIAM ss

election in November 1910 we met regularly at the monthly meetings, though I never climbed with him. During the last war, Foa, Gover and I joined the Inns of Court Reserve Corps and carried out various periods ~f training. On one ·occasion when we were billeted at Wellington Co.llege, an exercise was arranged with the Oxford Volunteer Corps. The Inns of Court stood at attention as they marched up,. and we were very interested to see that. their C.O. was none other than that sad faced humorist A. D. Godley, afterwards Vice-President of the Club. The exercise, which was a strenuous one for elderly men, terminated with a charge uphill at the double. When the summit of this grassy knoll was reached several forms were stretched upon the· ground, and as I slowly regained consciousness I discovered that the: casualty next to me was Foa. We were taken back to barracks in the cars of our respective platoon commanders, but as members of the Alpine Club we felt our position acutely. In May 1917 Foa read a paper before the Club entitled' The Cam­ paign in the Trentino' (... 4.J. 31. 298 sqq.). As I was acquainted \Vith that region of the Alps I supplied most of the slides. We had several · meetings at Foa's club with guide books, maps and photographs to decide on what slides were to be shown. This was a serious business,. as Foa was to read the paper first at the Royal Geographical Society who were supplying the specially drawn maps. Unfortunately my photography is· not topographical and I had some difficulty in fitting my slides on to Foa's titles. On the night at the Alpine Club one slide failed to fit its title, and when Foa announced what he considered the title should be there was a chorus of objections and suggestions from the members. Foa paused and then passed hastily on to the next slide·... After the paper I hurried to make my apologies for the mistake, but • . I was not forgiven for some time. In 1933 we met again in the Alps at Menardi's Hotel at Tre Croci,. where on arrival Menardi greeted us with the news that there was a member of the Alpine Club staying at the hotel who was eighty years of age and who wished to climb Monte Cristallo. At dinner time we discovered the octogenarian to be· none other than foa. At once he tackled us on the question of going with him up Monte Cristallo. Now this peak is not a difficult one, but at the same time it is not a suitable excursion for a man of eighty. There was a Conference of Alpine Clubs at Cortina during the week of our stay there, and Foa who could speak Italian was very anxious to speak on behalf of the Alpine Club, • but it so happened that Strutt had come to Cortina for that purpose . There was a good deal of telephoning betw~en Tre Croci and Cortina before the day of the Conference, and in order to avoid it our party, after an early breakfast, departed to Monte Pia,no to photograph, returning only in time for dinner. Foa thought we should have attended the meeting at which he and Strutt both spoke and blamed us for not being present to support the Club. He still pressed for one of us to accompany him, with guides, up Monte Cristallo, but strange to say Menardi ·was quite unable to get even one guide, for all the

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86 IN MEMORIAM . • guides had been already engaged by members of the Conference. Forbes and I, who had ascended Monte Cristallo many years before, hired a car to drive over the Pordoi Pass to Bolzano, and we persuaded Foa to go with us. The weather was at its worst and the car was an open one, but we wedged him in between us and with a macintosh

rug held up to our chins we managed to keep fairly dry. Foa insisted ' on walking down one stretch of the road in order to see the beauties · of the Vajolet Towers and the Karetsee, but we peered into the misty woods and had to take the view oil trust. During that week at Tre Cr.oci Foa gave us a graphic account of his tour round t4e world and of his visit to Australia and New Zealand to speak on behalf of the League of Nations Union. He almost persuaded

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. WILLIAM THORBURN ELMSLIE \ I894-1 94s' WILLIAM THORBURN ELMSLIE was born on June 24, 1894. His father was a S~ot and his .mother English. His home for the greater part of .his life ~as in the north of Engl~nd and he came to have an almost unrivalled knowledge of English hills; yet it was, I think, Scotland, the Scottish hills and above all the misty island of the Coolin that had .the warmest place in his heart. His boyhood was spent in Birkenhead where his parents lived, and ·he went to Birkenhead School. Later, rather after the close of the , • last war, his parents moved to Eltermere on the shore of Elterwater, a home centre which gave him ideal opportunities·for his visits to the Lakeland hills. In 1913 he went up to Cambridge as an exhibitioner· at Christ's College. .In his school days he had frequ~ntly walked with • Pho!o, Unit·ersal Pictorial Press.]

'";. T. EL:VISLIE. l 894- I 945 • •

• IN MEMORIAM

his father in the Lake District and he kne'v the fells well, but his first rock climbing holiday was in the spring of 1914 when he joined a Cambridge party at Seatoiler. I first met Elmslie then and I have ' climbed· with him ever since. He rapidly became a first rate rock climber with excellent judgment. Carefulness combined with legiti­ mate daring was his strong point. One of his friends in writing of him described him as ' the great mountaineer and lover of mountains, the adventuring explorer, at once courageous and safe, determined himself, yet ever so kindly to weaker spirits and less skilled bodies.'· These words are in no sense too strong. It would be presumptuous to attempt to assess the merits of Elmslie the mountaineer. Those ·of us who share the memories of his companionship will remember him as one who . was endowed with astonishing knowledge of all that pertains to mountains, of mountaineering in the field, and not -less the literature of mountaineering an~ mountain exploration. On his

climbing holidays he was frequently prevented, by stress of his pro­ • fessional work, from starting with the party ; he would join us usually after much complicated trayel and would at ·once throw himself into the climbing programme with immense vigour -and cheerfulness. Indeed, joyous vitality was his outstanding characteristic. Who . ' that has heard it will not remember the ·expressiveness of his own particular laugh ! Almost all of Elmslie's climbing was done without guides. It was never competitive or spectacular, but he accomplished in a long succession of years in short holidays and some longer ones a vast amount of original mountain travel. He could crowd an enormous amount of work or recreation into a short time. Much of his moun­ taineering had to, be dovetailed in between the numerous international and inter-church conferences that he attended in almost all the countries of Europe. In what follows I can only attempt a brief summary of what he did. Elmslie's undergraduate career was interrupted. by the war. From 1915 he was in Flanders and in Italy with units of the Y.M.C.A. For part. of this time he was stationed on the. Asiago Plateau, but had to ·content himself with distant views of the Dolomites: He returned to Cambridge at the end of the war and in 1921 he gained a First Class in the Theological Tripos, Part II ; he th~n spent a year in post­ -graduate work at Westminster T~eological College, Cambridge. During these years at Cambridge he took a leading part -in reviving the Cambridge University Mountaineering Club to vigorous activity. His first climbing holiday in the Alps was in 1921. He went first. to the Tarentaise and the Graians, climbing a large number of peaks. Later that year. he . traversed Mont Blanc from the Dome. hut to Chamonix and then crossed to Aralia by high level passes, fin~shing the season with the ascents of the Dent Blanche and Zinal Rothorn. For the first few months in 1923 Elmslie was in Germany. In the

·early summer he visited the Carpathians, climbing several peaks in the • High Tatra and in the· far eastern part of the range. Later that year he had a long climbing holiday in the Pennine Alps, the Ortler district

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• 88 IN MEMORIAM and the Dolomites. By this time Elmslie had become exceedingly skilful both on rock and snow' and more than this he had developed his strong taste for extensive mountain wandering which became more • and more his chief pleasure in the years to come. He climbed much in Switzerland and in Tyrol, with a growing tendency to a preference for the Eastern Alps. In the autumn of 1923 he began his Jork as a minister of the Presby­ terian Church of England. For a short time he was at Ramsbottom, near Manchester, after which .he went to Haverton Hill, Middles­ brough. He was married in January 1931, to Miss Mairi McLeod Shaw of Leith, an M .A. of Edinburgh. At about the same time he was transferred from Haverton Hill to Leeds. The happiest years of his life followed, with much scope for his abundant activities. In 1935 he became general secretary to his Church and moved to l,ondon. While he lived in the north of England Elmslie used to snatch short visits to the hills whenever occasion offered. There can be few who • have known the moors and hills as he did. With his sense for orderli­ ness and completion he sometimes set himself strange tasks for ac­ complishment : for instance, he ascended all the 2ooo ft. sumn1its marked on Bartholomew's half-inch maps of England and Wales, and there are some 400 of these. He did this not from any motive of competition, but simply for the satisfaction it gave him and as an incentive to visit out of the way hilly country. In 1926 Elmslie was elected a member of the Alpine Club. In this year he visited the Balkan countries for· the first time, an event which • marked a turning point in his mountaineering career. The rough travel with opportunity for exploration appealed ,.to him strongly. Mussalla in the Rhodope group in Bulgaria was first climbed, and then the summit peaks of the Thessalian Olympus.1 Ljubotin in southern Jugoslavia was ascended and also Parnassus. In the year that followed Elmslie climbed in the Pyrenees, the Sierra Nevada and the Picos de Europa.2 He was much impressed by the strange forms of the latter peaks. In 1928 he made a tour to the East during which he climbed Sinai and Hermon.3 In another year he made a second visit to Olympus,4 climbing it this time from a camp on the west side, and in the same holiday he went to Albania. Here he climbed Jeserze (also called Pupluks) in the northern mountains.5 In other seasons he made a return visit to the1 Picos and climbed in Dauphine and the Cottian Alps. He also did more climbing in the .Carpathians, visiting the northern part of the range and the High Tatra again and making a long mountain wandering across the rounded hilltops of Ruthenia. In 1937 he attended a conference in Canada. This gave him an opportunity of.. visiting the Canadian Rockies and the Selkirks. Part of this holiday was spent with the A.C.C. in their summer camp in Little Y ob.o Valley. It was the last time he climbed on big mountains. and he looked back upon this holiday with particular pleasure. 1 A.J. 39· 86 sqq. 2 A.J. 39· 286 sqq., 43· 396. 3 4 5 A.J. 40. 338. A.J. 40. 377· A.J. 42. 55 sqq. /

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• • IN MEMORIAM • • It is not possible for me to write of his work in his Church : I only • touched his life at other points. Among his wide interests he had a profound knowledge of the ancient world and of archreological matters. He was an indefatigable photographer and maker of lantern slides. Of the latter he possessed a vast collection which he drew upon in various combinations for lecturing purposes. His life closed in tragedy when on February 9 this year a V-bomb fell in Southern England. Thus there has passed from among us one of the most peace-loving of men whose wise counsel might have been of much service in the reshaping of the disordered world. He was buried in Edinburgh. All his friends in the Alpine Club will feel the deepest sympathy with Mrs; Elmslie and his two young children. • c. M. SLEEMAN . •

• • ARTHUR HACKETT I878-I945 ' - ARTHUR HACKETT who·Clied on January I 9 last was one of a remarkable • family of seven talented b.rothers. Six of them, including himself, took to engiheering and all rose to eminence in their profession in Birmingham and the Midlands. Arthur's speciality was technical advice in the erection and running of machinery and buildings for the manufacture of cocoa powder and chocolate. He was instrumental in erecting and equipping the largest block for the manufacture of cocoa in England, and in the construction of a cocoa and chocolate factory in Tasmania where he spent three years. · _ Of tall and powerful build, he was a great athlete and cyclist. As a young man he traversed many parts of Europe on his bicycle. He had a great· .flair for arranging athletic sports and . cycle racing, and many most successful meetings, for which he composed amusing posters, were held under his auspices on the Bournville grounds. It • was not until he reached middle age that he was introduced to the mountains by becoming a member of the Rucksack Club. This took him to the Lake District and N. Wales where he tasted the joys of rock climbing for which his strength and long reach ·eminently fitted him. -.But it was not till after he was 47 that he took· up mountaineering seriously and paid regular visits to the Alps. · He

climbed many. of the great Swiss peaks and became a keen and expert • photographer and the possessor of a .fine collection of slides of his owp. production. With these, coupled with a power of vivid description and a sly sense of humour, he became in great demand as a lecturer and preached to many audiences mountaineering as the supreme sport. In 1923 he had joined the Midland Association of Mountaineers of which he was a keen supporter, attending many of their meets, and finally in 1928 he was admitted as a member of our Club and when in England was a regular attendant at its functions. •

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' Photo, G. F. Cha.rilon.]

ARTHUR 11ACI

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• ERNEST ALEXANDER MACLAGAN WEDDERBURN • 1912- 44 • • MAJOR WEDDERBURN Sandy, as he was known to all his friends met his untimely end on Christmas Eve in Italy, as the result of an accident • • which is as surprising as it is tragic : he slipped in descending the marble staircase of a hotel at Aquila and fell over low banisters to the well beneath. Such an irony of fate ill became an all round mountaineer • of the pattern of Sandy, who had been such a source of inspiration and a mentor, as well as ari actual instructor, to the younger generation of climbers, prior to the war and also during it, in several phases of mountain training .. Considering that throughout his life W edderburn was a martyr to • asthma, and more recently had been troubled at times with a heart and a gastric ulcer, his physical vigour on a mountain was all the more remarkable. I first met him at Cambridge in 1931 as a member of · the Mountaineering Club, of which he became President the following year. He came up to Trinity Hall in 1930 to read law, having pre-· viously on account of his health been at no few~r than five schools, including Edinburgh Academy, Clifton College, and also the Alpine College, Arveyes. At the latter his mo~ntain enthusiasm was born, and on one occasion in a party of three boys with a master and guide he was the only pupil to reach the summit of Mont Blanc. Later, having taken his LL.B. at Edinburgh University and been admitted a Writer to the Signet, he again collapsed with asthma and returned in I 93 6 as a master to the Alpine College. As a side light on his spirit of adventure, as well as on the recuperative effects of altitude, it may be mentioned that at this time he sped off to Madrid and for a period, as an · airman and otherwise, assisted the republic.an forces agai~st Franco an escapade of which he had told few of his friends or even • his family ! But his professional obligations called him back in 1937 to Edinburgh, where he joined his father, Sir Ernest, Deputy Keeper of the Seal of Scotland, in the firm of Messrs. Shepherd and Wedderburn, W.S. • I had the pleasure of seconding Sandy's nomination for the Alpine Club in 1933 ; and when he was elected in February 1934 he had already had five Alpine seasons and one in Norway. He early showed his climbing, as well as his organising, ability when President of the .

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• ' IN MEMORIAM . Cambridge University Mountaineering Club, for in 1932 he le4 a party of the latter to Norway, where, apart from the Store Skag~sto~stind, Central Dyrhangstind and Mitmaradalstind, he accomplished a new as·cent of the Sydlige Dyrhangstind from the Skagastolsbreen.. This . successful season and the pioneer ascent was ·a particular sour~e of satisfaction to Sandy, who often referred .to it ; but he derived even greater gratification from the enterprising Alpine expedition of the C.U.M.C. which he led in March I933, when ski ascents of the Monch and other Oberland summits were accomplished. In the Alps Wedderburn had a total of eight summer seasons, five winter and three spring. He was a fine all round mountaineer whether

on foot or on ski, and in spite of his comparative youth he had by 1936 •

• accumulated a sufficient fund of experience to produce an excellent small text book, Alpine Climbing on Foot and w£th Ski, which was. published by Open Air Publications, Ltd. Moreover, for a period prior to its cessation he was a joint author with Carl Brunning of The Mountaineering Journal. . Wedderburn, like many mountaineers of ability who lead their own expeditions,. was of independent outlook and unwilling to submit to opinions ostensibly issuing ex cathedra. A difference of this sort with an official of the ·Club brought about his resignation in 1937. I was much gratified, however, to be instrumental in having him re-elected to the Club in I 941. · . He was an accomplished cragsman, and had climbed extensively in the Lake District, North Wales, the Scottish Highlands an~ Skye. He was a fairly freque~t contributor to the pages of the Scottish MBuntaineering Club Journal, and some of his writing was excellent in style, originality and description, a notable instance being ' Nights Out' (Vol. 22, p. 177).. He led or took part in a large number of the greater Alpine climbs ; and he was especially pleased ·with two routes accomplished on the N. f~ce of the Zem1att Breithorn Y ounggrat, ·. . . Klein Triftje and Ice Route, Gross Triftje as well as the Zmutt face of the Matterhorn in bad weather. But one of his most creditable and exacting expeditions was that in March I936 with Elias Julen of · Zermatt involving the ski traverse of Mont Blanc from Grand Mulets, over the summit, then Mt. Maudit, Mt. Blanc du Tacul, Col du Midi to the Requin hut~ This occupied I 3 hours' hard going under· bad conditions, and was the first traverse ever made on ski in that direction (British Ski Year Book, 1936). · His military· career was a notable o~e for jts variety and for its

.strongly mountain flavour, in· spite of the apathy with which training • for mountain warfare has been regarded by our higher authorities for so' considerable a period of the present hostilities. He worked hard . to dispel or correct the limited vision in this respect which has been shown from the beginning. Soon after Wedderburn enlisted in 1939, and before he had completed his O.C.T.U. course, he joined the ski battalion of the 5th Scots Guards and went into training at Chamonix. . ·On the untimely disbanding of that unit, he eventually received his

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E. f\. !VI. \VEDDEHBl;H~. I<)I2-I(J44• • 92 IN MEMORIAM . . commission in the Royal Scots and later began his long connexion with the special troops of the Commandos and Combined Operations. While I was an instructor at the Special Training Centre in Scotland, I had occasion to inspect his mountain pupils, or 'trainees' of army · parlance, and on one notable occasion was unexpectedly wafted off to Skye to observe and take part in some Commando training on the sea cliffs and the crags of that incomparable island. In 1941 he was promoted Major and Instructor at the Snowcraft Instruction Training School in Iceland. In the meantime I myself had been posted to military duty in India, and I shall not easily forget receiving from W edderburn a laconic Icelandic Christmas card enquiring why I was not giving him a hand in that somewhat different and rather distant country ! · In 1942 Wedderburn was in the U.S.A. in an advisory capacity in connexion with Combined Operations, and during a second visit to Washington in the latter half of that year his appointment carried the rank of .Lieut.-Colonel. He wrote me at this time of the great interest of these visits and the opportunity they had afforded him of seeing both • from the air and on foot ' lots of mountains from Alaska to Cal-ifornia.' On his return to this country he was placed in command of a Com­ mando which was undergoing special training for arctic conditions. Staff work at Headquarters of Combined Operations followed, and then in November 1943 he was appointed second in command of The Lovat Scouts. This unit he accompanied to the Canadian Rockies for a period of that winter for SFlOW training, and in the Jasper district he had the opportunity of making many ascents, .mostly on ski. These included Brazeau (ea. 1 I ,ooo ft.) at the head of Maligne Lake, a first winter ascent in all probability and a considerable expedition, since it involved 19 miles of approach and a bivouac on the return in the bush. Other ascents included Pyramid (9076 ft.), summits in the Tonquin Valley neighbourhood, and a large number of excursions from a remarkably situated ice cave camp on the Columbia Icefield, details of which are not to hand. In a last letter to me shortly before his death Sandy declared : ' I was completely captivated by the country and plan to return, perhaps to live there.' In another letter he had referred to Mt. Odell, which he informed me was, as far as he knew, still virgin. Characteristically he added : ' If I had ha:d a chance I • should have climbed on it but I promise you I would have stopped short of the summit which rightly is yours ! ' He hoped one day to accompany me thither. Soon after The Lovat Scouts returned to England they proceeded to the Central Mediterranean area, and Wedderburn embarked with them as second in command. During their time in the Apennines he was for a period Acting Commanding Officer. He wrote me of his happi­ ness to be still amongst mountains which were ' not big but beautiful and quite steep.' The Scouts had been continuously in the line ever since arrival, and he added : ' Recently the weather has gone bad on us and we have been pretty unco~ortable even when the Germans

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• • IN MEMORI.AM 93 • aren't around, and so we are eagerly waiting for the snow when we can get on ski again.' However, this was not to be, for he met his tragic .end in the circumstances above cited, when he had been sent on by his C.O. to make the necessary arrangements for further ski training in the Sasso mountains. His Colonel wrote of him: 'Sandy has been invaluable to me as my second in command. His wide knowledge on mountaineering matters and snow warfare, combined with his able judgment, had done much to attain the higher standard of efficiency of this Regiment in the new role, and the burden of reorganisation last winter had fallen entirely on his shoulders. He was a friend of all and highly respected by all ranks, and his loss is deeply mourned throughout the Regiment.' . But Sandy's many friends in the wider circle of the mountaineering fraternity generally will greatly miss him for his kindly personality as well as his efficient comradeship on the hills. In so many .respects, _however, and apart from mountaineering, he was a character and individual of initiative with sound judgement, of which the .country can ill afford the loss for the· many and complex problems of. readjust- ment which lie ahead of us. N. E. OD ELL . .

ALL who knew him will be grieved at the death of Sandy Wedderburn. War served to enhance the qualities of enthusiasm, ene.rgy, initiative and skill which made him a trusted leader on many a crag and mountain­ side. During the p~st two years it was my privilege to be associated with him in the training of troops in mou,ntain warfare, in combating and overcoming many difficulties connected with such training and in the promotion of the technique of mountain warfare in the Army. For some time he commanded.a Commando which was being trained to carry out a raid of a specially difficult and hazardous nature on a mountainous coast, and the care with which he prepared every detail was an object lesson in military efficiency; best of all was the attention he gave to the comfort of his men, comfort demanding the best possible clothing which he went to enormous pains to obtain. It was a bitter disappointment to him when the raid failed to materialise owing to impossible weather conditions. ~ater he was engaged on staff work, but this was not good enough, he longed for action, and he threw up his job and rank of Lieut.-Colonel to become Major and Second-in­

Command of The. Lovat Scouts. . During the winter of I 943---44 he and I trained a unit in mountain warfare in Canada. It was then that I came to know him intimately. He suffered from a severe internal complaint, but no one suspected it for he worked day and night, during the day on the mountains, at night on administratiye duties. Many difficulties aro_se, for training in mountain warfare is no set piece type of training with everything laid on, and it was the first time that British troops had been trained in high mountain work ; but these were invariably solved, largely owing to his unvarying equanimity and tact and to his skill at putting his finger on the crux of a problem .

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• • • 94 lN MEMORIAM • To some, when they first met hini, his manner may have seemed • ~asual, offhand, even cynical, but this was merely a mask concealing an acute and logical mind~ allied to a generous and sympathetic tem­ perament in.which glowed an intense sense of fun and good humour. The friendship of Sandy was something to be prized. His men were sensitive to his qualities ; they trusted him implicitly ; they would follow him anywhere, whe!her on a mo~ntain or in the face of the enemy. I last saw him in Italy not long before his death. I also visited The Lovat Scouts shortly before the Eighth Army· broke through the Gothic Line. Already the regiment had established a reputation for initiative, hardihood and .skill, and the enemy had learned to respect ·and fear it among the Apennine hills. .What it may achieve in the future will be of itself a memorial to Sandy and the traditions of skili and . efficiency in fighting on mountains. that _he established. . . F. s. SMYTHE. .

FRANK BINGLEY DUTTON WALKER 19°4-1944 FRANK BINGLEY DuTTON WALKER joined the Club in· 1939 after his last season in the .A.lps, anq one of our regrets is that the war denied him a fuller enjoyment of his membership. Characteristically, he gave up his mountaineering for more serious work. It is true that t4e higher mountains were out of reach, but he could and did forgo the pleasure that ~e used to find in his visits to our British hills. In

• the Home Guard he was weapon training officer to his contingent . He join~d the Scots Guards in 1941, got his. commission in May 1943,. and was posted to the ~oyal Scots and so to the Mountain Divisi9n, where his knowledge of hill craft was turned to a grimmer purpose. It is something of a paradox that he was killed in the flattest country in Europe, at ·Flushing, in November 1944· A sniper was troubling his company and Dutton Walker was shot in a higher storey of a build-· ing to which he had cl~mbed in an attempt at corrective action. He was forty years old . • From 1932 until 1939 Dutton Walker went to the Alps each year and had had a wide -experience of both summer and winter climbing on foot and on ski. · He sometimes complained of the exasperating ·. shortness of his holidays but never of the joy that they gave him : the lure of the Alps had him in its grip. At home he climbed British rock • easily and well, and had the smooth unhurried action of the good climber; he gave an impr~ssion of sureness that was ~ncommon even amongst the notable cragsmen of his day and took his place naturally in one or other of the small groups doing the bigger things, often as leader, sometimes as second, a position in which his services were .eagerly sought, for he had the rare gift of being able to impart to others some of his own tranqui~lity. I belonged to an earlier generation, yet some of my pleasantest memories are of times when chance or a kindly

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• invitation brought me on the sarpe rope. It was then that one dis- covered in him an unexpected whimsical humour, an invaluable gift for a climber. Another unexpected quality was his stamina, \vhi~h he possessed in an unusual degree for one of so slight a build. In . July 1939, witn J. K. Cooke and J. G. McGavin he traversed the peaks • of the main Coolin ridge and included Blaven and Clach Glas in a day of 23 hours. Another day's expedition embraced the major crags of • the Lake District : Pillar, Gable,. Scafell, Gimmer, ·now, with a climb on each. Sometimes this energy found expression in less orthodox ways and on one occasion he ended a week end by walking from the R. L. hut in Langdale to his· home ·in Blackpool. Dutton Walker was drawn to the hills because he loved them and found there his happiness and his friends. . A. S. PIGOTT . •

ARTHUR CARSON ROBERTS . 1864- 1944 ARTHUR CARSON RoBERTS, who died on November ~2, 1944, at the age of 8o, had ~ long and distinguished career as a Civil Servant. After leaving Balliol and being called to the Bar, he was attached to • the audit department of the Local Government Board, and remained for many years in charge of the London district. He was closely concerned with the establishment of the Metropolitan Water Board and prepared the Bills which effected the reform of the machinery of ratipg and valuation. For a number of years before his retirement he had been chief financial adviser to the Ministry of Health. His books on audit and Local Government finance are standard works and well known throughout the country. . Under another aspect, he Wel;S well known as an authority on bridge; and remained until his death the sole British repr-esentative on the international board. His acute and analytical mind gave him a special facility in designing and drafting rules and laws. He was thus largely responsible for making the laws of contract bridge. He was no less ari authority on yachting ; and in this again his special gifts led to his . being entrusted, in collaboration with his friend Mr. Harold Vander­ bilt, with the drawing up of the rules for international .yacht racing. Before the latest .series of contests he was paid the compliment of being the only Englishman invited to be present on board the American

• yacht during trials . His chief athletic interest was mc;>untain climbing. He had a great love of mountains ; . but it was difficult rocks which drew him most. He wrote in later years : ' I must confess that it was youthful thirst for conquest. of the difficult which first drew me to the mountains. I had a yearning to find myself on some high rocks which I could

• know no man had ever touched before. Whether these be ignoble motives or not, I am sure that they bring many men to mountain climbing ; but, when so brought, the mountains themselves can teach

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• • IN MEMORIAM • them what other and greater joys their high fastnesses can give, and can make of some true devotees.' During his first seasons he climbed with Peter Sarbach, with Alex­ ander Burgener and with ' W eisshorn ' Biener, in the Central Pennines and the Grisons. In I 893 he first visited Chamonix, and found his \ chosen region among their granite problems. He was a bold, indeed

a daring cragsman, agile and exceptionally fast. He had the· explorer's • spirit, and was designing new routes, as on the N. face of the Dent du Geant and the northern traverse from the Little to the Great Dru, before these lines had been attempted. As a mountaineer he might be classed with the independent order of Stogden or of Blanchet. But his unorthodoxy exceeded theirs, and the theory he maintained and successfully imposed upon some of the greatest of guides by sheer wiU power that ' unless one is so much weaker a climber as to need support; from the other, two are safer on rocks, as well as quicker, without the rope ' would not even now be accepted as doctrine by the most modernist school. He had reason, however, for confidence • in his own powers ; and at his best he can have had few if any superiors _ among contemporaries, in nerve and in the bravura of rock technique. In I 893 the Grepon was still regarded as the most difficult peak in the Alps. Only Venetz in I88I and Mummery in I892 had led the ' crack ' ; all other attempts had failed, and the Almers in I 888 had preferred to force the terrific slabs on the left. Schaller was now asking him 500 francs even to 'try,' and Alfred Simond _asked him more. Nothing daunted, Carson Roberts engaged two Simonds, Josef and J. A. afterwards a well known guide on more normal .terms, undertaking to lead the crack himself. He led it triumphantly. And when we remember the dark clouds of rumour and superstition still i~vesting difficult peaks in those days, the fact that Venetz in leading the crack had been backed up by Burgener, that Mummery when he led it in turn had already been up it behind Burgener and Venetz, and knew the peak well, and that Carson Roberts was visiting the Grepon for the first time, I think we must rate this ' lead ' as unique in its period. The amateur leader's astonishing power of imposing his will upon his guides even through the medium of ' very imperfect ' French was not less remarkable than his cool audacity in undertaking and his resolute acrobatics in carrying through - the intimidating climb.· On their descent, they missed the com­ plicated route to C.P. and would appear to have come down a sensa­ tional new line in the neighbourhood of ~he ' Lochmatter ' chimney­ a route made many years later. Companions, for climbing of this order, being few to find, he managed to arrange with Emile Rey for a season in I89S· After a trial scramble on the lesser Charmoz, they made the ascent of the Little Dru, ascending and descending in fast time, without ever uncoiling the rope. Proceeding straightway to a gite under the Geant, they made its ascent, again without putting on the rope. The tragedy on the descent is now Alpine history.1 Rey dropped out of an easy chimney 1 See A. C. Roberts' narrative in A.J. 48. 26 sqq.

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IN MEMORIAM 97 when the difficult climbing was over, made no effort to recover footing, and was killed. Carson Roberts was criticised at the time because. the party was not roped. It is improbable in any case that two such climbers would retain the rope upon the easier, lower portions of any • descent. Rey's death was due, as so many deaths of older climbers have been, to an off day in fitness, a second's inattention or inter­ ruption of nerve communication, and the inevitably slower reaction in recovery which years produce. In 1897 Carson Roberts was climbing in Norway, where he took his wife up Skagastolstind. In 1899 he would seem to have been in the Oberland. In that year he also climbed from Saas Fee and from • Zermatt, traversing the Matterhorn, and most of the summits of Monte Rosa in one expedition. In 1900 he was in the Oberland, on the Wetterhorn and Eiger. In 1902, with Slingsby, Hastings, and J. J. and W. A. Brigg, he made a long guideless tour, ascending Mt. Blanc to the Vallot hut, where they were turned back by storm and picked up a solitary Frenchman on the Grand Plateau ; Mt. Velan; the Grand Combin (on this it is noted 'A. C. R. wanted to set off on his o-vvn, but we restrained him ') ; then Binn, Macugnaga, and by the New Weisstor to Zermatt. In 1905 we find him climbing in Dauphine, with his friends Haskett Smith and Geoffrey Hastings ; ~nd his lively account of their guideless traverse of the Meije appeared many years later, in A.J. 48. 245 sqq. In 1912, alone with his wife, \vho shared all his interests, active and artistic, he was at Arolla, ascending the Tsa, the Petite Dent de V eisivi and the Dents de Bertol ; Geoffrey Hastings joining him for the traverse of the Dents des Bouquetins ridge. During the last war, in the years 1915- 16-17-18, he took his holidays climbing in the Lakes and North Wales, making almost all the known difficult ascents of that period, ·including the Monolith and Kern Knotts cracks, with occasional difficult variations of his own, notably an unrecorded direct ascent up the E. buttress of Lliwedd between Route I and the Horned Crag. When increasing lameness put an end to his clin;1bing, he continued to travel widely, with his wife visiting many of the less accessible and more picturesque corners of the \~lor l d, and choosing by prefer­ ence those which offered them mountain walks and cliff scenery. A man of fine tastes, of a precise wit and of a natural reserve, he was little known to later generations in our Club. But he retained his interest in climbing ; and when during the last few years he was persuaded to write down the two vivid stories which have appeared in our JOURNAL, he took constant pleasure in recalling the memories and in the appreciation which the papers evoked. In tlie absence of other records, the facts he recalled in them have formed the basis of this short summary of an unusual climbing career, and of a mountaineer­ • ing spirit enterprising, unconventional, dominating, and ahead of its ttme.• G. WINTHROP YOUNG.

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VOL. LV. NO. CCLXX H •

IN MEMORIAM

OLAF BLOCH I • r872-I944 . . NEws of the death of Olaf Bloch on October rg last at the age of 72 will have been heard with regret by all those who crowded into his lectures at the Royal Photographic Society in Russell Square, or, far less fortunate, read them in the Photographic Journal, and by those who for many years came to rely on his guidance and help in all their problems of photographic technique. Olaf Bloch received his earliest scientific training at the Finsbury Technical College and followed • this by wide experience at the Royal Institution in hospital work and

in chemical manufacture. When, however7 in rgro, he joined F. F. Renwick and B. V. Storr at Ilford Limited, he had found his true niche, and the remainder of his working life was spent in service to photo­ graphy, both by his own contributions and by his efforts to secure recognition of its importance in the technical progress of mankind. Bloch took a keen interest in the. affairs of the Royal Photographic Society, and he was elected President in 1931, a few months after becoming Chief Chemist of Ilford Limited. In the laboratory that he then directed, Olaf Bloch was usually content to state the problem to his assistants and to give them all possible encouragement and help in their efforts to find a solution, while allowing them to develop freely their own ideas and methods. He was ever enthusiastic to apply new principles to production methods, and he left no one in his Company in ignorance of the value of his laboratory. At the Royal he was always the most popular of lecturers, combining a great deal of instruction with even more of his unique brand of humour. The discovery and application of a ne\v sensitiser, giving infra-red plates more sensitive than any known until then, led to the series of lectures and demonstrations for which 0 laf Bloch will be best remembered by most photographers. A remarkable range of applications for infra-red photography was developed under his forceful guidance. Later he turned mainly to demonstrating the wide impact of photography on everyday life through science and industry, and surely never were so many facts packed into an evening's enter­ tainment as in each lecture of this series. The Royal Society, the Royal Institution, the Royal Society of Arts, the Institute of Chemistry, the Institute of Metals, the British Association and the Physical Society, were among the distinguished bodies which sought and obtained his services as a lecturer. Characteristically, however, he gave equal thought and care to the preparation of lectures to the humblest photographic club . or student scientific society. It was · fitting that he was chosen to preside at the commemoration of the Centenary of Photography at the Royal Society of Arts on May 17, . . .1939· Consulted by astronomers throughout the world, Bloch produced many plates having special qualities, for the photography of the moon, the spectrographic examination of meteors, observations at an eclipse • • •

IN MEMORIAM 99 of the sun, and many other purposes. Most useful of all, perhaps, and certainly most widely used, are the special emulsions, evolved under his direction, for the recording of atomic particles derived ftom cosmic rays, or produced through radio-activity, or by the breakdown 9f atoms under bombardment from the cyclotron. For these services t9 science, Bloch was made an Honorary LL.D. of Aberdeen University, an honour well deserved and very highly appreciated. He also received the Progress Medal and the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, and was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and of the Institute of British Photographers. Away from his work, Olaf Bloch was a keen gardener at his cottage in Surrey. At the age of SI he took up mountaineering, and the few weeks each year he was able to spend on the Alps were in prospect a delight and in retrospect a source of pride in his achievements. He was ele~ted to the Alpine Club in I93I. He wrote a masterly chapter on Alpine Photography in the Lonsdale Library Mountaineering. • In I937 deteriorating health sadly curtailed all these activities, and after his retirement from active participation in laboratory work in 1939 his wisdom and humour were greatly missed by all his colleagues. . . H. WALLER. ' . •

OSCAR SUPERSAXO• ' I882-I944

THE following letter to Mr. G. P. Baker, dated December I 6, I 944, may serve as a tribute to a great guide whom many British employers will remember with affection and gratitude.

The death of Oscar Supersaxo, the great Saas Fee guide, was announced three days ago. • I met Oscar in Saas Fee for the last time in I 942, when he was still hale and hearty. In recent years he had given up guiding and was generally engaged in contracting work. He was the one who built the Solvay hut on the Matterhorn w~th the help of a gang of Saas Fee men. In recent years I did not climb with Oscar : he was away\ from Saas most of the summer building concrete dugouts and forts in the Swiss Alpine ' reduit.' I had one of my most glorious weeks with Oscar on ski in April I9I5 when, with Heinrich as porter, we climbed Alphubel, Allalin, Fluchthorn, Adler Pass and Strahlhorn (with descent to Zermatt) and Egginer from the pass, a fine rock climb with two feet of fresh snow. Oscar was a man of sterling character, of few words but most kind­ hearted and helpful ; I am sure his n~merous English friends will miss him badly. His younger brother Othmar now owns, together with Heinrich, the Pension Supersaxo at Saas Fee ; he does no~

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